Immersible water heater



Auk. 30. 1927.

1,640,943 5. M. KASS IXMERSLBLE WATER HEATER Filed Sept. 2. 1920 Patented Aug. 30, 1927.

'UNITED STATES SAMUEL M. KASS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMMEBSIBLE WATER HEATER.

Application fled September 2, 1920. Serial No. 407,625.

My invention relates to portable heaters for water which are intended to be placed in the water and which find their greatest use for heating the water for bath purposes.

The purpose of my invention, is to use water as ballast for the purpose of submerging the heater, heating the ballast during the operation of the heater and finally adding the heated ballast water to the water within the tub.

A further purpose is to reduce the normal weight of the heater when not in use by omittin the ballast, supplying separate. prefera ly fluid ballast when the heater is to be used.

A further purpose is to provide inlets, passages or tubes entering the heater and open to the water being heatedwhether to the water of the tub as preferred, or to the ballast water-and in position to be acted upon by the heating element.

A further purpose is to provide exhaust of heated air at opposite endsor sidesof the heating element.

Further urposes will appear in the specification and in the drawings.

I have preferred to illustrate my invention by but one main form, selecting a form which has proved to be practical, efiicient and inexpensive and which at the same time well illustrates the principles of my invention.

Figure 1 is a top plan view showing the preferred form of my invention.

Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of Figure 1 taken upon lines 2-2.

Figure 3 is an enlarged section of my heater taken upon line 33 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a section of a heater showing a modified form and corresponding in position to line 4-4 of Figure 2-.

In the drawings similar numerals indicate like parts.

In man homes hot water is not available in the bat room, either because no provision has been made for it or because it is supplied by the hot water back of a coal stove which 15 not in use at the time. For this reason a demand has arisen for a heater which may be immersed in the water of the tub and whose heating element may be used to raise the temperature of the water which comes in contact with the walls of the heater and, by conduction and convection, to raise the temperature of the entire water contents of the tub.

A heater of this type is shown generally in my Patent .\'o. 1,329,630, issued January 20, 1920, for floating heaters. Though it has proved quite desirable I have discovered that it can be made even more effective by the invention disclosed herein. detail of the disclosure of which is given by way of illustration and not in limitation of the invention.

Describing the preferred form shown in Figures 1-3: The tub 5 is understood to be any container in which a body of water 6 is placed. For convenience I will refer to the entire device used for the heating. as a "heater, giving it the number 7. It is made up of two main parts 8 and 9 which may conveniently be considered as the "heating element" and the heat distributor respectively. The distributor is hollow. providing a chamber 10 for the heating element which may be inserted through a passage 11. The heating element is fed with air and its products of combustion escape at one endor side-through this passage. and at the other end-or sidethrough a chimney 12. Both the passage and chimneyare intended to extend above the level of the water in the tub.

Though the heating element is here shown as a gas heater, comprising three burners 13, 14, 15, separately valved at 16 and all controlled bv a single valve 17 in a supply pipe 18, it will be obvious that it need not be a gas heater and need not be so arranged. It can use liquid fuel, such as oil or alcohol, or solid fuel, such as commercial forms of dry alcohol, parafiin, etc. It is quite desirable to make the heating element separable from the distributor, to make both more accessible for cleaning and repairs and to reduce the weight of the separate parts for ease of handling.

Though the heater may be constructed so as to float free from the bottom, I find that it need not be so heavy if designed to rest slightly upon the bottom as at 19 and that the stead ing effect of this slight support reduces te tilting tendency also.

I aim to reduce the weight of the parts which must be handled-both the heating element and the heat distributoras much as possible and to make up the weight re uired for suitable submergence (here re erred to for convenience as ballast) by adding water, gaining in the availability of this ballast, in the ease with which it may be added and disposed of and in the heat distribution into and by means of this water.-

As will be recognized, the only water which will be effective to submerge the device is that which lies above the surface 20 of the water in the tub. For this reason the walls 21 of the container for the water ballast are extended to a suitable height designed to secure the desired extent of submergence. In order that the bottom of this container may be heated by the heating element, the same wall 22 is used for the bottom wall of the container and for the top Wall of the chamber 10. The side walls 23, end walls 24, 24' and, to a much less extent, bottom wall 25 of the chamber 10 are effective to heat the water in the tub. but not to as great an extent as the top wall 22 is efi'ective in heating the ballast water. lVhen the ballast water has been heated sufliciently it can be poured into the tub to heat the water already there, either finally or at intervals with replacement by other ballast water to be heated.

In order to increase the area of heating surface within the chamber 10 and, most desirably, to appl as much of the heat to the water in the tu as diainguished from the ballast water, I pass water tubes 26 through the chamber above the heating element, opening the ends 27 of these tubes to the water in the tub so that the water in the tubes shall be heated and shall mingle with the water in the tub, being replaced by cooler water to be heated, according to well known thermal laws. I recognize that the water tubes need not extend across but may be mere inlets for the same urpose.

In the illustration, Figures 143, the tubes extend from side to side across the chamber, but I recognize that they may extend in other directions and but part way across provided the do not prevent insertion of the heating e ement.

Though the best results are obtained by connecting these pipes to allow water to enter them from the tub they would be of advantage even if connected to allow entry of and to communicate with ballast water as in Figure 4 where the pipes 26' are shown as bent at 28 so that their ends 27 open into the bottom of the ballast container. The chief disadvantage of this form is that it increases the dis roportion between the heating of the bal ast water as compared with the water of the tub.

In operation the tub is filled to the level desired, tentative or predetermined ballast is poured into the container and the heating element is put in place. \Vith the heater in the water the ballast may be adjusted readily if required by addition of water or slight tilting of the heater to pour some ballast water into the tub; or the heating device with ballast in place may be put in the tub and water may be run into the tub to the height desired for that amount of ballast. In either event the heating element is lighted and the water is heated to the required degree, pouring and replacing ballast water at intervals if required.

It will be evident that various changes may be made in the application of my invention in the light of my disclosure and I purpose including herein all such variations as fall within the fair spirit and scope of my claims Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A portable water heater adapted for immersion in water to be heated, comprising a heating element and a heat distributor having a chamber for the heat element and. over it. so as to be heated by it, a container for water ballast adapted to submer e the heater, the heatin element and the bal ast being so distribute that the heater partially floats.

2. A portable water heater adapted for immersion in water to be heated, comprising a heating element and a heat distributor having a chamber for the heat element and a container for water ballast, the latter located above the heating element and in position to receive heat therefrom and transmit it to the ballast and the weight being so distributed that the heater is canted in the water.

SAMUEL M. KASS.

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